Lord of the Foals[Closed]

Would give jasmine a nod is responce to her insistanc ethat she could carry the launcher, waiting around near the door, just in case anything tried to barge in. He doubted anything would without Starry warning them, but it paid to be ready for that call out over the intercom.

However, he would quickly turn to Jazz when she suggested they get as much stuff as possible.

"Wait, we shouldn't try and bury ourself in equipment, it's too heavy, and I think we'll need more then one trip, and I can't be here dragging guns back and forth. I need to find my dad and make sure if he's okay! Besides, the foals and those slavers are already armed, I can't see them coming back here for more guns..."

Then, something clicked for Shutter.

"Wait a second...they may not come here for guns...but they probably would come here for ammo! Jazz, why don't we just take a few guns, and then stock up on as much ammo here as we can. All of it, if possible! If they have nothing to shoot, and we do, then that could be our ace in the hole. Also, I can get going and find my dad right away! Does that sound like a good plan?"

Lightning narrowed his eyes as Einara pointed rather accusingly toward him, as if she expected some large response from the pegasus. He simply rolled his eyes a little as he turned towards his friends and smiled just a little toward Violet. At least she still had faith in him. "For your information, Einara, I already knew that. It was my father that I had been trusting and following this entire time."

The stallion look toward Bakewell then down to his mother as he would add, "Thank you, Violet, for still trusting in me. But I am no leader. I just do what I can." Lowering his head, Lightning lifted his mother, though with some difficulty, onto his back as he let out a small groan while doing so. "And right now, we are going to do what Bakewell wants. We spent our five minutes. Listen, Lemon, Moon Beam, Moon Shine, and Einara, if you all still want to come with us, we are going to go find our parents, your's as well, Lemon, and we're going to get everypony we can out of here. If you want to help, you are welcome to join us. If not, get to my father's tunnel and get out. I hope that the wasteland will be kind to you." To the foals that joined them, if any did, he would give them a nod. To the ones that didn't, he simply gave them a, "Good luck," before turning to Bakewell and motioning her to lead the way.

“It has been six minutes, actually. Seven now that you’ve had your speech.” Bakewell groaned. “I think Lemon’s made it abundantly clear that she doesn’t want to see her parents. Even clearer that they don’t want to see her. If they even can see her anymore. Buck, they might be dead for all I know. I’ll deal with them myself or something later.” She said, moving to the door.

“Before any of you get any bright ideas. I’m not stupid like Flash. I’m not going to just up and trust the entire lot of my parent’s torturers to not cause any problems for me and mine once we get there. I know you’ve all helped or been privy to abusing my family. I know my family has gotten ‘special treatment’. Celestia knows how I'm managing it, but I'm not holding a grudge. Even so, If you want to come with us you’re going to tell me everything you’ve done concerning my family as... hers. You know, my friend. I... need to know what happened to them. Oh, and you’re giving up your weapons. Lemon Drop? You’re fine. You can come along without saying anything and without surrendering your weapon because there’s been a thousand instances where you could have shot me already had you cared to.“ The mare gave her commands as she stepped out the door and headed toward the residential area. “Flash. If they want to follow us, make sure they do as I just said. We can talk and move at the same time.”

At the mention of Lemon Drop's parents, Lemon's ears drooped. She was met with the skeptical glares of the other foals in the room. Those glares were interrupted by Einara's sneer, as Bakewell stated her terms.

"She didn't tell you, did she?" Moon Shine asked Flash.

"I-uh," Lemon scratched her hoof at the ground nervously.

"I killed her parents," Einara interrupted, before pointing her hoof at Bakewell, "And I'm the one who tortured your parents, so..." she paused for a moment, searching for the right words, "So don't rob me of the credit!"

Einara trotted toward the door. "And we're not going to surrender our weapons! We don't even need them to kill you, but if those are your conditions, then the four of us aren't interested!"

“I figured it was something like that.” Bakewell said flatly, turning to watch Einara as she boasted.

“Well, credit where it’s certainly due.” The mare said as she stepped up to the zebra filly and offered her hoof. “You definitely did a good job of it. My mother was terrified out of her mind all two seconds that I saw her.”

“Is Einara’s opinion suitable to the rest of you?” Bakewell asked the other foals without bothering to face them, voice calm and steady, but present enough to hopefully draw their attention.

“Do you want to split up and go our separate ways, Lemon Drop? Do you want to do as Einara says, Moon? No hard feelings and best of luck if you do. It has been… interesting."

Violet’s eyes narrowed further as Einara explained her role in Lemon’s parent’s deaths, and the torturing of Bakewell’s parents. And she was complaining about not getting her fair credit for it. It was decided, there was no redeeming this zebra. Nopony who bragged about killing and torturing innocents and asked for credit deserved to live.

But she needed an opening, she couldn’t just shoot her with all the other foals here. She had to imagine they didn’t have a good opinion about Einara either but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t shoot at Violet if she just walked up and blew her brains out.

Bakewell was giving her a possible opportunity though, if the others turned their backs on Einara, just maybe...

At the very least she might get mad at Bakewell and attack, it didn’t matter. Violet just needed an excuse, an opening, just one, and Einara would be gone. She needed to die, and Violet was determined to ensure that it happened.

So, checking her pistol one last time, she got away from the foals, distracted by Bakewell, and looked for a place in the room to get out of sight. If she could vanish, it would make it that much easier to get Einara when she wasn’t looking. All it’d take is one well-placed shot to the head...

[96 Sneak, find somewhere to hide in the room and get out of site while the foals are distracted]

AJasmine nodded as she scrambled to the weapons pile and began stocking up as much amo as possible. She wasted no time as she began to take every noc cartridge and clip she could find.

"Shutter, that wath incredibly geniuth of you! I have no idea why I didn't think of that!"

Finally Jas picked up as much as she could in addition to the weapons she already carried. She took a step forward and fumbled slightly before managing to get a firm hold on all the gear. Jasmine awaited Shutter's lead by the door.

"Whenever you're ready Shutter. Oh, and I want to come with you to find your parent'th. It'th dangerouth around here and... Maybe you could uthe a thecond pair od eyeth in your thearch."

Shutter would give a nod of appreciation, as he also tried to load up on as much ammunition as he could carry in his saddlebags. however, he would have to turn his head with shock when he heard that Jasmine wanted to go with him.

"Jazz, are you sure? It's going to be dangerous out there, and..."

Shutter then stopped, as he thought for a moment...by that same logic, it probably would be a good idea for Jasmine to follow him. A second pair of eyes could indeed be handy...

"...Well, if you're sure, then okay. But we need to get your sister her Missile Launcher first. She needs to be protected if she's going to keep on that intercom for us."

He would state, stepping up next to her, before he fished his Harmony Reinforcer out of his bag and into his mouth.

Starry darted into the armory, with an ecstatic look upon her face. "Hey! Hey ponies! Guess what?! The Stable door is open!!" she shouted, "It feel like it took MONTHS to figure out how to get us out of here, but now, I've finally done it! We can just wrap things up in this Stable here, and then move on to bigger, more important, more exciting adventures!!"

Starry could barely contain her enthusiasm. "Oh! Shutter! Let's go and find your father quick, and get him and everyone else to safety! I'm going to leave a message on the intercom once the rampaging buffalo die down or off, and then we can all leave safely!"

The foals shook their heads in unison at Flash's offer; even Lemon Drop. "Sorry, it was fun exploring with you ponies, but you're all kinda scary, and I don't feel safe around you ponies any more," Lemon admitted bluntly.

"Well, then," Einara said snarkily, as she and the foals left through the door, "We'll see you in Stableton, if you make it back!" She stuck her tongue out at them as she walked through the doorway, and the foals left.

Arc continued creeping through the crawlspace, until after what felt like an eternity, he emerged at a crack in the Stable Wall; a tunnel between the Stable and some sort of cavern. He couldn't see too far in without the use of his pipbuck flashlight, but he could hear the sounds of bloatsprites from within the cavern.

The sound of the unicorn crawling echoed through the ventilation, dull thumps of hooves landing on metal sheets that the shaft was made from.

His mind started to wander. He thought about where probably he was. Arc couldn't remember this particular part of the ventilation system, though that was more caused by the chase with the buffalo and the subsequent loss of spatial awareness. Nevertheless, this had to lead somewhere.

Arc realized he could hear faint buzzing. And the only other buzzing that matched this one was that of a bloatsprite. Arc stopped, stricken by sudden fear that he might end up in this confined space with a swarm of bloatsprites. He stopped breathing, trying to be as silent as possible, hoping to not attract the bloody bugs to a unicorn snack. Arc even closed his eyes to hide possible reflections in them, and tucked his left front leg under his body to hide his pip-buck display.

After a while of not being eaten by a swarm of hungry mutated insects, or the buzzing not changing in volume or intensity, Arc slowly uncurled up from his defensive posture. He slowly opened his eyes, and as they got used for the lack of light, he could clearly see that the ventilation shaft had a hole in it that was part of a larger crack in the Stable's outer shell, opening into a cavern. (Lunar sight perk)

Well... that explains the bloatsprites, then. At least something today is making some sense. Well... now to find others, get the drill and get the fuck out.

Then his hearth sank. There was no bloody was he would turn around in the confined space of the ventilation shaft, and even if, the other end was blocked by the buffalo corpse. Meant he had to pass around the bloatsprites and somehow not be their next course. Nature can be fascinating when one can observe it from afar. This was far too much fascination for Arc to like it. He started to move again.

“I see.” Bakewell said simply. She had approached Einara for a reason, and it wasn’t to compliment the zebra or let her walk out of the door. Unlike Violet, Bakewell wasn’t sensible right now. She was angry. Confused. Sad. Scared. Upset. She didn’t care who the others sided with, though the fact that Lemon Drop thought Bakewell was scary and wanted to instead go with the disgusting murdering torture-foal who wouldn’t raise a hoof to help Lemon perhaps struck a nerve, making the situation worse.

The earth pony didn’t let Einara move away. As soon as the filly turned to exit Bake was on her, trying to knock her down and pin her. Trying to hold her down. Bake's brain didn’t even think about the action or consequences until after she had started moving. How could she have let this pony, who had killed her workmate and had carried out torture on the beige mare’s own parents for… what was it? A year now? More? How could she apologize for that? It was impossible. It was done, she was done. This zebra had taken Bakewell’s one last unbroken hope for the Stable and snapped it. There wasn’t any reason to go on. She couldn’t even be sure that her parents would let her escort them out. Why would they trust her to? More likely they would just shoot her on sight like she deserved.

The thought hurt more than any bullet ever could. Small traitorous tears were starting to dam up in the corner of the cook’s eyes and threatened to overflow. Why had everything gone so wrong? Why was she such a horrible monster? Bakewell knew she deserved everything that was happening to her, but everything outside had been going so well. She had managed to trick others into thinking well of her. She had managed to get a nice stallion to fall in love with her. She had managed to fool herself into expecting better for herself. It wasn’t- She had thought- Maybe she could have-

“You three, go. Get to Stableton” Bakewell ordered towards the other foals. She doubted they would listen. Who would ever listen to her? Stupid ponies. That’s who.

“Don’t touch your guns. There’s two other armed ponies in this room. One of them could already be aiming at your head.” Yeah, right. Who would care enough to try and protect a stupid bully.

“You might kill me, but for at least two of you that’s not going to matter because the moment they look like they’re going to touch a weapon they’re going to die” Or maybe Violet would just shoot Bakewell instead. Wouldn’t that be funny? Ha, ha.

“And it’ll be whoever survives’ fault.” No. It would be hers. Yet more lives ruined by her hooves.

“Don’t worry about Einara. She’ll be fine. I just need to keep her from moving away while I privately explain to her exactly why she isn’t allowed in Stableton, and I’m not even going to ask about how you know the place exists.” More lies. Because that’s all Bakewell was capable of.

Before she had a chance to respond to Shutter, Starry wandered into the Armory and alerted them about the state of the Stable door. As excited as she was to see her sister, her comment about he Stable door confused her slightly.

"Thtarry, what are we going to do onthe we get everypony out of here anywayth... There'th nothing out there..." Jas thought to herself before adding in. "How in the hoof are we going to turvive?! And on a brighter note, here'th your rocket launcher!" Jasmine heaved the heavy weapon to her sister with some difficulty, straining underneath its weight.

Moon Shine and Moon Beam paused at the doorway, before turning back and taking a step toward Bakewell. Neither of the two reached for their weapons, but then again, these were the Moon brothers; magical prodigies. Odds are they didn't need them. Moon Beam spoke.

Lemon Drop, on the other hand, looked to be on the verge of tears. her head darted between Moon Beam and Bakewell, and the other ponies in the room. She struggled to speak, but panic set in, and she instead darted down the hallway, fleeing.

Violet stepped out of her hiding spot, where she was planning on taking out Einara if anything went bad. Not making a sound, she aimed the pistol she was still holding at Moon Beam’s horn. With a mental twitch she pulled back the hammer of the pistol, both for dramatic effect and to make her presence known, the audible click of the pistol filling the small room.

“That’s not going to happen.” she told the two foals, her voice low and cold. “Here is what is going to happen. You two are going to leave, get out of here and go to Stableton. If either of you attempt to draw your weapons or perform any kind of magic I will shoot your horns off.. And if you know anything about what happens when a unicorn has their horn severed you’ll know that the pain you’ll feel will be excruciating. You’ll wish that I just shot you in the head instead.”

Her glowing eyes blazed like two white stars as she glanced between the two brothers. “I’m faster than the two of you and I’ll know if you try to use your magic before your horns even flare.” Considering that with her eyes she’d see the magic buildup that was very true. “So don’t think you’ll be able to pull something before I can fire. One wrong move and you’ll be on the floor writhing in agony. So choose your next actions wisely.”

Bakewell felt a pang of regret as Lemon Drop ran off. Perhaps things would have been better if she had just sat back and let somepony else take control. Einara would have eventually mouthed off to somepony who didn’t care about her age and would have gotten her loud mouth blown clear across the wastes with or without a stable pony’s interference. Lemon Drop wouldn’t be terrified of Bakewell, the two could perhaps have even gotten along well. Bakewell was positive that her work-mate’s filly wasn’t innocent in all of this, but sometimes it was worth attempting to look past the less scrutable aspects of a pony, right? Bakewell in no way agreed with some of Violet’s actions. But hadn’t the two gotten along well enough so far anyway?

But that was all part of a lie that the mare had forced herself to choke down, right? A gentle cover-up to hide the disgusting pony she really was. Because as much as the beige mare knew she was an unsympathetic jerk, she also knew that she didn’t want to be alone. As the chef stared from the twins, to Violet, to Einarra she felt something, or perhaps everything, drain away. The horrible zebra needed to die, this was a fact Bakewell still believed in. But she was slowly starting to wish that she didn’t. If being nice was a lie, and being herself felt like an even bigger lie, was there any truth to cling to in the first place?

“You know I’m not going to do that.” Bakewell said to the twins after Violet had revealed herself. No scorn, no sneer, no anger. A stark contrast compared to her recently harsh attitude. If anything the words sounded almost depressed. “And you just as much know that you’ve already hurt me worse than any magic would. The magic will eventually stop hurting, the other stuff you’ve done won’t.

“Besides,” She added, “think about what’s going on here. If we had wanted you dead, wouldn’t we have attacked you while you were weak from the bloat sprites?” She continued the lie. It was true that the large earth pony didn’t wish any harm on the twins themselves. Not even for their threat. After all, wasn’t the twin’s current actions what ponies would expect of their 'Bakey' had the same thing happened to them? If Violet was, Celestia forbid, pinned down by angry slavers she had previously wronged, wouldn’t Bakewell’s lie of a life have forced her into trying to save the purple filly as well regardless of how valid the enemies’ reason?

The Moon twins exchanged an amused, skeptical glance before looking back at Violet. Moon Shine, grinning widely, said, "You've obviously never heard of the Moon twins."

The two of them suddenly and simultaneously charged their horns. At the same time Einara, taking advantage of the distraction, delivered a powerful kick to Bakewell's crotch from under her. It felt less like a blow from a small filly, and more like being charged by a buffalo.

Moon Shine, had, of course, made the obvious mistake that many a villain had made in the past.

He was gloating. With a pistol pointed at him.

Somewhere, somehow, Moon Shine’s ancestors must have been facehoofing. If they weren’t already groaning from all the murder and such.

Regardless, Moon Shine very quickly found that gloating when you have a gun pointed at you was a very poor plan, as Violet fired before he even finished his sentence. Considering the range, and how Violet was pretty decent with a pistol, it was unlikely that she’d miss even the horn.

What happened next, depended on how the others reacted.

[Guns 30, Agility 10]

[Shoot Moon Shine’s horn]

[If miss, shoot Moon Shine’s leg to disable him]

[If Moon Beam attempts to do anything, shoot his horn too]

[If miss, also shoot Moon Beam’s leg to disable him]

[If Einara still kicks Bakewell or makes any other attempt to resist, shoot her in the knee if there’s a good opening to do so without hitting Bakewell]

Bakewell let out a breathless gasp as her eyes shot wide. The world blurred and unfocussed before her shrunken teal pupil. Her back legs wobbled, attempting to keep her standing before giving in and depositing the large mare’s heavy body into a rough heap atop the zebra foal. Bakewell was tough. Bakewell had taken blows. Bakewell had gotten shot. But this kick quickly made its way towards the top of painful experiences. The resilient pony found herself in a war with her own body, trying to keep it from rolling onto its side and curling up into the tightest ball she could manage as a few stray tears made their way down her cheeks. She tried to get the pain under control, if she gave up now, Flash and Violet would be tortured or killed by the foals that Bake had been stupid enough to anger. She couldn’t let that happen. She had to keep herself in the fight.

Violet's bullet missed just centimeters below Moon Shine's horn. The bullet instead dug into his skull, piercing into the foal's brain, killing him. Moon Beam reacted immediately; his horn flared up and in an instant, Einara evaporated and reappeared instantly above and in front of Violet.

Einara came falling on top of Violet, with a hoof well-placed to strike her horn. Moon Beam's horn, meanwhile, had developed a layer of overglow.

Lightning Flash recovered from a brief daze, and pointed his weapon toward Moon Beam, before firing.

Violet fired a shot off as Moon Beam’s horn flared, but didn’t have enough time to fire another. There was a huge burst of magic under Bakewell, and she soon felt something above her. She very quickly put two and two together and rolled out of the way to avoid getting kicked in the head by a falling zebra.

Assuming that worked, she’d quickly whirl around to face Einara, eye’s quickly glancing at her pistol, she didn’t have many bullets left. Thinking fast, she remembered Lightning had a knife on his person and quickly yanked it away from him, shouting “Borrowing this thanks!” as she did so. Now with a weapon she was actually familiar with, she face Einara and waited for her to make the next move, ready to react to whatever it was.

’Get up. Get up. GET UP.’ Bakewell screamed inside her head as she lay useless on the floor. The zebra foal had escaped, that meant Violet was in even more trouble.

Putting all of her might into it, the beige mare managed to shakily pull herself up into a stand, her legs shook slightly and her body was still trying to curl in on itself, but at least she was standing and somewhat, though not totally, stable. In a few moments she would be at least slightly capable of coming to her teammates' aid.

Jasmine was genuinely surprised to hear that, but incredibly skeptical. What Shutter suggested went against everything that she had read and knew about previously.

"Well, I guethh that we can talk about thivilizathion later... But how would we even be able to shut the door while doing a full evacuation! And we can't jutht leave all the other ponieth in there with the radiation. In a way they're all connected to uth. We grew up with all of them..."

"Don't worry Jazz, I'm counting all the dwellers as part of our group. I wouldn''t dare shut it while someone was still inside. But if we can evacuate everyone and close it, then maybe we could trap a good portion of thoese slavers, and avoid a messy fight. We've got some practice with fighting, but I seriously don't cherish the idea of taking on a slaver group in a straight battle..."